Colonel Samuel Washington(W4)
by John A. Washington
by John A. Washington
[Editor's Note: This sketch of the life of Samuel Washington written by John A. Washington was read at a family luncheon on September 5, 1970, at Harewood, marking the two hundredth anniversary of the house. It was again read at a meeting of the Jefferson County Historical Society at Harewood on November 7, 1970. The article was published in the magazine of the Jefferson County Historical Society , vol. xxxvi, December 1970.] |
Samuel Washington, after a lifetime of illness, died at forty-six, yet he managed to compile an outstanding record in county Virginia in civic, militia, and church service. He was a far-sighted investor, a concerned father, and the tasteful builder of a beautiful house. His reputation as a leading citizen, albeit in a provincial world, was later overwhelmed by the subsequent fame of his internationally renowned brother, who moved on a larger stage. Now, ironically, the footnote description of Samuel as the "oldest full brother of George" is all that rescues his name from obscurity. Few people today know the names of many of their thirty-two great-great-great-grandparents. Samuel Washington's name survives only because of the link to George.
Samuel was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in November, 1734, almost three years younger than his famous brother. The family soon moved about thirty miles west to a farm just across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg, When Samuel was eight, his father died, leaving his widow with five young children. There were also two older sons of Augustine Washington's first marriage, who had been educated in England. In the year after the father's death these two sons married and settled down, Lawrence at Mt. Vernon and Augustine, Jr., at the old family home in Westmoreland County. While little is known of Samuel's education, or of George's either, it is obvious that the family resources did not permit an English education for Augustine's second family. Samuel did apparently receive the best education the neighborhood afforded, for he wrote a highly literate letter in a flowing hand, necessarily had a working knowledge of accounting, surveying, and law, and was equipped to be chosen a leader of his community at an early age.
In 1748, at the age of sixteen, George Washington embarked on his early careers as surveyor and soldier, and the thirteen-year-old Samuel was left the oldest male at home. Self-reliant at an early age, he must have assisted his mother in the management of the home farm and her other properties and learned the farming practices of the day.
Samuel had inherited two properties from his father. One was a six-hundred-acre farm in the Chotank Creek region of northern Stafford County, now King George county, on the Potomac River a mile or two west of the present Dahlgren Bridge. The other was twelve hundred undeveloped acres on Deep Run of the Rappahannock River, southwest of Fredericksburg. In 1752, when Samuel was still seventeen, his older half-brother Lawrence Washington of Mt. Vernon died childless, and Samuel and his two younger brothers, John and Charles, each inherited some fifteen hundred acres of western land, located in what was then Frederick County, in 1772 became Berkeley, and since 1801 has been Jefferson County. Lawrence had become interested in acquiring this rich, though Indian-infested land as a long-term speculation, through his wife's family, the Fairfaxes, Who held the overlordship of the entire northern part of Virginia.
By the early summer of 1755, before he was twenty-one, Samuel had married and set up housekeeping at the Chotank farm. His bride was Jane Champe, daughter of a prosperous neighboring merchant and farmer, Col. John Champe. It was at this time that Samuel and his bride had their portraits painted by John Hesselius, a Philadelphia artist who had been making portrait-painting trips into Stafford county and elsewhere in the south for several years.
The young bride soon died, and by 1758 Samuel had remarried. His second wife as Mildred Thornton, granddaughter of Samuel's much-married aunt, Mrs. Mildred Washington Lewis Gregory Willis. They had a son Thornton Washington. Samuel was soon again a widower, and then married a third wife, Lucy Chapman. Unlike the first two wives, she was not a neighbor, but there was a close association. Her father, Nathaniel Chapman, a Fairfax County lawyer, had been an executor of the wills of both Samuel's father and half-brother. Lucy also died young, and before Samuel was thirty, he married in March, 1764, his fourth wife, a young childless widow, Mrs. Anne Steptoe Allerton
One can only theorize about the early deaths of the successive Mrs. Samuel Washingtons. It is said, however, that Samuel Washington was consumptive all his life, and certainly three of his four sons who survived childhood died of tuberculosis
Samuel had inherited two properties from his father. One was a six-hundred-acre farm in the Chotank Creek region of northern Stafford County, now King George county, on the Potomac River a mile or two west of the present Dahlgren Bridge. The other was twelve hundred undeveloped acres on Deep Run of the Rappahannock River, southwest of Fredericksburg. In 1752, when Samuel was still seventeen, his older half-brother Lawrence Washington of Mt. Vernon died childless, and Samuel and his two younger brothers, John and Charles, each inherited some fifteen hundred acres of western land, located in what was then Frederick County, in 1772 became Berkeley, and since 1801 has been Jefferson County. Lawrence had become interested in acquiring this rich, though Indian-infested land as a long-term speculation, through his wife's family, the Fairfaxes, Who held the overlordship of the entire northern part of Virginia.
By the early summer of 1755, before he was twenty-one, Samuel had married and set up housekeeping at the Chotank farm. His bride was Jane Champe, daughter of a prosperous neighboring merchant and farmer, Col. John Champe. It was at this time that Samuel and his bride had their portraits painted by John Hesselius, a Philadelphia artist who had been making portrait-painting trips into Stafford county and elsewhere in the south for several years.
The young bride soon died, and by 1758 Samuel had remarried. His second wife as Mildred Thornton, granddaughter of Samuel's much-married aunt, Mrs. Mildred Washington Lewis Gregory Willis. They had a son Thornton Washington. Samuel was soon again a widower, and then married a third wife, Lucy Chapman. Unlike the first two wives, she was not a neighbor, but there was a close association. Her father, Nathaniel Chapman, a Fairfax County lawyer, had been an executor of the wills of both Samuel's father and half-brother. Lucy also died young, and before Samuel was thirty, he married in March, 1764, his fourth wife, a young childless widow, Mrs. Anne Steptoe Allerton
One can only theorize about the early deaths of the successive Mrs. Samuel Washingtons. It is said, however, that Samuel Washington was consumptive all his life, and certainly three of his four sons who survived childhood died of tuberculosis
The theory of contagion was unknown at this period. We know today that the strains of pregnancy and childbirth frequently cause a rapid progression of the disease in tuberculous women. It is hard to avoid guessing that Samuel's young wives acquired the disease from him, had babies, and rapidly faded away of consumption. We do know that George Washington wrote in 1791 that Samuel's wives who left no families had had babies who died.
Scattered diaries of George Washington survive from the period beginning in 1760, and in them are references to visits to his brother Sam at Chotank which indicate a cordial fraternal camaraderie. It is also in the 1760's, as Samuel came into his early thirties, that he emerges as a civic leader of his county.
In 1766 the American colonies were in a ferment of resentment at the Stamp Act of 1765, and the cry of "no taxation without representation" began to be heard. Perhaps the earliest compact protesting the Stamp Act and foreshadowing the Declaration of Independence was the Westmoreland Resolutions of February, 1766, written by Richard Henry Lee. One hundred fifteen leading citizens of Westmoreland, Stafford and neighboring counties signed this document, pledging themselves to resist the Stamp Act and protect each other from any ensuing penalties. Samuel Washington was the fifth signer of this fiery and bold agreement.
By 1766 Samuel Washington had become a member of the Stafford County Court. The county court exercised executive and administrative functions, as well as judicial, and indeed constituted the entire county government. He also served as vestryman of the established church, and in July, 1766, when St. Paul's Parish advertised for bids for the construction of the new brick church which survives today, Samuel Washington and William Fitzhugh were the two wardens of the vestry who signed the advertisement.
Scattered diaries of George Washington survive from the period beginning in 1760, and in them are references to visits to his brother Sam at Chotank which indicate a cordial fraternal camaraderie. It is also in the 1760's, as Samuel came into his early thirties, that he emerges as a civic leader of his county.
In 1766 the American colonies were in a ferment of resentment at the Stamp Act of 1765, and the cry of "no taxation without representation" began to be heard. Perhaps the earliest compact protesting the Stamp Act and foreshadowing the Declaration of Independence was the Westmoreland Resolutions of February, 1766, written by Richard Henry Lee. One hundred fifteen leading citizens of Westmoreland, Stafford and neighboring counties signed this document, pledging themselves to resist the Stamp Act and protect each other from any ensuing penalties. Samuel Washington was the fifth signer of this fiery and bold agreement.
By 1766 Samuel Washington had become a member of the Stafford County Court. The county court exercised executive and administrative functions, as well as judicial, and indeed constituted the entire county government. He also served as vestryman of the established church, and in July, 1766, when St. Paul's Parish advertised for bids for the construction of the new brick church which survives today, Samuel Washington and William Fitzhugh were the two wardens of the vestry who signed the advertisement.
Active as he was in Stafford County affairs, Samuel's attention was turning westward to his Frederick County lands. The end of the French and Indian War had brought a measure of peace to that region, and it was no longer foolhardy to settle on the rich virgin land there, forsaking tidewater Virginia farms which had been worn out by intensive one-crop cultivation of tobacco. There is reason to think that Samuel's fourth wife, Anne Steptoe, may have brought with her more property than most brides did in a period when the principal asset, land, usually went to male heirs, for Anne had no full brothers and might have inherited from her mother's family, and her first husband, Willoughby Allerton had been the last survivor of a once prominent family. Whether or not it was Anne's resources which enabled Samuel to build a new house, in February, 1767, he advertised his Chotank farm for sale in the Virginia Gazette, the colonial newspaper published in Williamsburg, and in May, 1769, though still a resident of Stafford County, he first is mentioned as a member of the Frederick County court.
The architect and builder of Samuel's new house in Frederick, now Jefferson County was John Ariss, a Westmoreland County native who had built many houses for leading families in the tidewater region,
including Kenmore, the house of Samue1's sister, Betty Washington Lewis, in Fredericksburg. By the late 1760's Ariss was established in Frederick County, where he was building a house called Fairfield for
Samuel's older first cousin, Warner Washington, from Gloucester County. This house survives ten miles south of Harewood, toward Berryville.
Samuel Washington continued to live in Stafford County until 1770.
The St. Paul's Parish Register records the birth of Anne Steptoe's first child, Ferdinand, in 1767, and the births of babies to Samuel Washington's slaves at various dates through December, 1769. George
Washington's diary mentions several visits to Sam at Chotank in 1768, and a long visit from Sam and several Stafford County neighbors to Mt. Vernon in early 1770.
Then on September 1, 1770, George Washington writes: "In the Evening my Brother Sam and his wife & children came hither from Fredericksburg in their way to Frederick.” After two weeks of riding, fishing, and visiting, on September 16 George writes: "My Brother Sam & his wife set off in my chariot for his House in Frederick." Here then is the precise time of the family's move to Harewood. We do not find the name Harewood used for the house, however, until a year later, in November, 1771, when Samuel's second cousin, John Smith of Middlesex County, is recorded as having died at Harewood while on a visit.
The architect and builder of Samuel's new house in Frederick, now Jefferson County was John Ariss, a Westmoreland County native who had built many houses for leading families in the tidewater region,
including Kenmore, the house of Samue1's sister, Betty Washington Lewis, in Fredericksburg. By the late 1760's Ariss was established in Frederick County, where he was building a house called Fairfield for
Samuel's older first cousin, Warner Washington, from Gloucester County. This house survives ten miles south of Harewood, toward Berryville.
Samuel Washington continued to live in Stafford County until 1770.
The St. Paul's Parish Register records the birth of Anne Steptoe's first child, Ferdinand, in 1767, and the births of babies to Samuel Washington's slaves at various dates through December, 1769. George
Washington's diary mentions several visits to Sam at Chotank in 1768, and a long visit from Sam and several Stafford County neighbors to Mt. Vernon in early 1770.
Then on September 1, 1770, George Washington writes: "In the Evening my Brother Sam and his wife & children came hither from Fredericksburg in their way to Frederick.” After two weeks of riding, fishing, and visiting, on September 16 George writes: "My Brother Sam & his wife set off in my chariot for his House in Frederick." Here then is the precise time of the family's move to Harewood. We do not find the name Harewood used for the house, however, until a year later, in November, 1771, when Samuel's second cousin, John Smith of Middlesex County, is recorded as having died at Harewood while on a visit.
Samuel Washington at once took his place as a county leader in Frederick County. Although he had already appeared as a justice in 1769, he was sworn in again as justice of the County Court on February 5, 1771, and on the same day took the oaths as vestryman of Norborne Parish, In May he was sworn in as Colonel of the county militia, an office which was second in command only to the County Lieutenant. It is noteworthy that Frederick County at this time comprised six and a half present Virginia and West Virginia counties and that Samuel's qualities were such that he was selected for these offices in preference to longtime residents of the area. It is now hard to realize that his relationship to George cast no reflected glory at all at this time, for George Washington, while a retired colonel of Virginia troops and a member of the colonial legislature, the House of Burgesses, was still an obscure figure, waiting in the wings for his cue to assume his destined leading role on the stage of history.
Early in the next year, 1772, Berkeley County was formed out of Frederick, and Harewood fell in the new county. At the first meeting of its court Samuel Washington was sworn in as one of the justices. In 1773 and 1776 he served as Sheriff. He performed such minor duties as viewer of roads and taker of tithables. On occasion he acted as presiding justice of the court. When in 1772 a new parish was formed, he was one of the commissioners to value the churches of the existing parishes, so that a share might be paid to the new parish to get it established. Tradition says he was one of the wardens of Norborne Parish when the splendied stone church was built, the ruins of which can still be seen beside the road a mile from Harewood toward Charles Town.
Samuel cut off his roots with the old part of Virginia by selling both his Chotank farm and the Deep Run property to a third cousin, Lawrence Washington, of Chotank, whose branch of the family had lived in that neighborhood for a hundred years. Soon after his move to Frederick, Samuel invested widely in local real estate, accumulating, chiefly in 1771 and 1772, lands which brought his total holdings to some three thousand eight hundred acres, stretching in a great zigzag from a point two miles north of the Harewood house to three miles south of it.
Early in the next year, 1772, Berkeley County was formed out of Frederick, and Harewood fell in the new county. At the first meeting of its court Samuel Washington was sworn in as one of the justices. In 1773 and 1776 he served as Sheriff. He performed such minor duties as viewer of roads and taker of tithables. On occasion he acted as presiding justice of the court. When in 1772 a new parish was formed, he was one of the commissioners to value the churches of the existing parishes, so that a share might be paid to the new parish to get it established. Tradition says he was one of the wardens of Norborne Parish when the splendied stone church was built, the ruins of which can still be seen beside the road a mile from Harewood toward Charles Town.
Samuel cut off his roots with the old part of Virginia by selling both his Chotank farm and the Deep Run property to a third cousin, Lawrence Washington, of Chotank, whose branch of the family had lived in that neighborhood for a hundred years. Soon after his move to Frederick, Samuel invested widely in local real estate, accumulating, chiefly in 1771 and 1772, lands which brought his total holdings to some three thousand eight hundred acres, stretching in a great zigzag from a point two miles north of the Harewood house to three miles south of it.
As soon as Samuel settled at Harewood, family visits began. In October, 1770, only three weeks after the family moved in, George Washington arrived. He was on his way to explore that part of Virginia which was much farther west, choosing lands for the bounty warrants which had been issued to officers of the French and Indian War. Six weeks later he returned to Harewood on his way back to Mt. Vernon, and he paid further visits in 1771 and 1772. By December, 1772, George was somewhat plaintively urging Sam to visit Mt. Vernon, writing he had "hoped to see you, but it seems you have foresworn this part of the country." In 1773 Sam did make two visits to Mt. Vernon, the second with his wife and children, and in 1774 George was back at Harewood. The Revolutionary War abruptly stopped this sort of leisurely activity, but several surviving letters from the General to Sam discuss the progress of the War with intimate familiarity, and the General's confidence in Sam and liking for him are evident.
Samuel's family was growing. His oldest living child, son of his second marriage, was Thornton Washington, born about 1758 or 1759. Samuel and Anne Steptoe Washington had six children in nine years. Ferdinand had been born in 1767. A baby named Frederick Augustus was born in 1768, and George Washington attended the christening, but this baby died in 1769. A daughter Lucinda was born late in 1769, but died in 1770, six weeks after the family moved. She must have been the first member of the family buried at Harewood. George Steptoe Washington was born in 1771, Lawrence Augustine in 1774, and finally Harriott in 1776. If the theory about Samuel's health is valid, Anne Steptoe must have had a native resistance to tuberculosis, or Samuel's disease must have undergone, in his thirties, the kind of spontaneous remission which is not uncommon after active tuberculosis in earlier life, when the patient survives at all.
It is pleasant to imagine Harewood as a new house, with a small village of essential outbuildings, all but one of which have now disappeared. The babies arrived in methodical succession. The busy master was concerned with civic and church duties and with farming the newly cleared land. Neighborhood friends constantly came and went. Friends and relatives visited from afar.
Yet clouds were on the horizon. The dispute with England developed into war. Young Thornton Washington went off to join the army, and there is considerable correspondence between George and Samuel about just where in the military establishment the young officer should be placed. A smallpox scare went through the country, the family at Harewood was inoculated, and Anne Steptoe died in March, 1777 from this procedure, which was relatively hazardous in those days. The next month Samuel resigned as County Lieutenant, or head of the Berkeley County militia, citing the "low estate of his health" which rendered him "unfit for public business." And, as it developed after his death, he had overextended himself financially in his enthusiastic land purchases, so that his debts were becoming burdensome.
It is pleasant to imagine Harewood as a new house, with a small village of essential outbuildings, all but one of which have now disappeared. The babies arrived in methodical succession. The busy master was concerned with civic and church duties and with farming the newly cleared land. Neighborhood friends constantly came and went. Friends and relatives visited from afar.
Yet clouds were on the horizon. The dispute with England developed into war. Young Thornton Washington went off to join the army, and there is considerable correspondence between George and Samuel about just where in the military establishment the young officer should be placed. A smallpox scare went through the country, the family at Harewood was inoculated, and Anne Steptoe died in March, 1777 from this procedure, which was relatively hazardous in those days. The next month Samuel resigned as County Lieutenant, or head of the Berkeley County militia, citing the "low estate of his health" which rendered him "unfit for public business." And, as it developed after his death, he had overextended himself financially in his enthusiastic land purchases, so that his debts were becoming burdensome.
In November, 1777, Samuel Washington's name appears for the only time on the national scene. The Continental Congress in Philadelphia appointed three commissioners, including Samuel, to go west to Fort Pitt, now Pittsburgh, to deal with disaffection and British influence with the frontier settlers and Indians. One Pennsylvanian and two Virginians were appointed. Both Virginians declined, Samuel presumably because of his health. Substitutes were appointed, only one of whom finally made the trip, which resulted in the Treaty of Fort Pitt of October, 1778.
Berkeley County was far removed from the theater of war, and neighborly social life continued. After Anne Steptoe's death Samuel again remarried, his fifth wife being Mrs. Susannah Perrin Holden, a young widow from Gloucester County. Her brother-in-law, Francis Willis, had been a friend of Samuel for several years, and Samuel must have known these people through his Gloucester County cousin, Warner Washington, now of Fairfield. Samuel's health continued to decline, as George Washington mentions in a letter in August, 1780. Finally, on September 9, 1781, a month before the Battle of Yorktown, Samuel signed the last version of his will, providing for his fifth wife and her baby, John Perrin Washington, as well as for his five older children. On September 27 his neighbor, Mrs. James Nourse, of Piedmont, a mile down the road, wrote in her diary. "Cell" Washington died last night." On Sunday, September 30, he was buried.
The widow, Susannah, survived only a year and a half, and her son died at about the same time as his mother. Thornton Washington had married in 1779 and was settled as a very young householder on a southern part of Samuel's Harewood properties. There was a suggestion that the sixteen-year-old Ferdinand be sent to sea, but it appears that he lived with his mother's relatives, the Steptoes, until he married and died almost at once, in 1788, of consumption, before his twenty-first birthday. George Washington assumed responsibility for twelve-year-old George Steptoe Washington and nine-year-old Lawrence Augustine Washington, putting them at school first in Georgetown and then in Alexandria. Seven-year-old Harriott lived with her mother's sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Steptoe Lee Fendall, widow of Philip Ludwell Lee of Stratford Hall and wife of Philip Richard Fendall of Alexandria, until soon before Mrs. Fendall's death, when she turned the little girl over to George and Martha Washington. Between 1783, when Susannah died, and 1793, when George Steptoe Washington married and came back to Harewood to live, it is uncertain who occupied the house.
It is clear that any view of Samuel Washington's life is distorted, in placing an undue emphasis on his relationship to his brother George, for many of the facts come from the General's letters and diaries, which have been assiduously preserved, printed, and studied. Yet Samuel appears as a busy and active citizen and leader of his locality, with a life and career of his own, worth remembering for his own sake, not only as a "brother of George." He leaves us his young and hopeful portrait. He leaves us his house, Harewood, of which the leading authority on Virginia domestic architecture has written, "(The parlor) mantel is certainly one of the outstanding marble mantelpieces in Virginia, and the room is one of the best of its period in the country. . .. Harewood itself embodies the virtues of the room. Its simplicity and excellent scale endow it with great distinction." And finally Samuel Washington leaves us his family of descendants, now numbering about a thousand, who hopefully have been worthy descendants of their sire.
Berkeley County was far removed from the theater of war, and neighborly social life continued. After Anne Steptoe's death Samuel again remarried, his fifth wife being Mrs. Susannah Perrin Holden, a young widow from Gloucester County. Her brother-in-law, Francis Willis, had been a friend of Samuel for several years, and Samuel must have known these people through his Gloucester County cousin, Warner Washington, now of Fairfield. Samuel's health continued to decline, as George Washington mentions in a letter in August, 1780. Finally, on September 9, 1781, a month before the Battle of Yorktown, Samuel signed the last version of his will, providing for his fifth wife and her baby, John Perrin Washington, as well as for his five older children. On September 27 his neighbor, Mrs. James Nourse, of Piedmont, a mile down the road, wrote in her diary. "Cell" Washington died last night." On Sunday, September 30, he was buried.
The widow, Susannah, survived only a year and a half, and her son died at about the same time as his mother. Thornton Washington had married in 1779 and was settled as a very young householder on a southern part of Samuel's Harewood properties. There was a suggestion that the sixteen-year-old Ferdinand be sent to sea, but it appears that he lived with his mother's relatives, the Steptoes, until he married and died almost at once, in 1788, of consumption, before his twenty-first birthday. George Washington assumed responsibility for twelve-year-old George Steptoe Washington and nine-year-old Lawrence Augustine Washington, putting them at school first in Georgetown and then in Alexandria. Seven-year-old Harriott lived with her mother's sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Steptoe Lee Fendall, widow of Philip Ludwell Lee of Stratford Hall and wife of Philip Richard Fendall of Alexandria, until soon before Mrs. Fendall's death, when she turned the little girl over to George and Martha Washington. Between 1783, when Susannah died, and 1793, when George Steptoe Washington married and came back to Harewood to live, it is uncertain who occupied the house.
It is clear that any view of Samuel Washington's life is distorted, in placing an undue emphasis on his relationship to his brother George, for many of the facts come from the General's letters and diaries, which have been assiduously preserved, printed, and studied. Yet Samuel appears as a busy and active citizen and leader of his locality, with a life and career of his own, worth remembering for his own sake, not only as a "brother of George." He leaves us his young and hopeful portrait. He leaves us his house, Harewood, of which the leading authority on Virginia domestic architecture has written, "(The parlor) mantel is certainly one of the outstanding marble mantelpieces in Virginia, and the room is one of the best of its period in the country. . .. Harewood itself embodies the virtues of the room. Its simplicity and excellent scale endow it with great distinction." And finally Samuel Washington leaves us his family of descendants, now numbering about a thousand, who hopefully have been worthy descendants of their sire.
A "feature length" documentary, entitled THE GENERAL'S BROTHER, the story of Samuel Washington, the younger brother of General George Washington, has been created relating the many capacities in which Samuel Washington participated as a patriot during the Revolution only to die weeks before the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
This documentary, produced by Bob Asbury, reveals much about the childhood and adolescent years of General Washington and brother Samuel. Bob Asbury is a descendant of Samuel Washington through John T. A. Washington and Elizabeth Conrad Bedinger. The video can be accessed at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhEXeFbnUoU
This documentary, produced by Bob Asbury, reveals much about the childhood and adolescent years of General Washington and brother Samuel. Bob Asbury is a descendant of Samuel Washington through John T. A. Washington and Elizabeth Conrad Bedinger. The video can be accessed at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhEXeFbnUoU